The writing world’s all abuzz about the use of artifical intelligence (AI), especially with the rapid rise over the last few years of the technology. While the development of AI has been inevitable since the first computer was programmed, several recent events in the writing world have launched the use of technology into the spotlight.
Today, the writers of the Insecure Writers Support Group are sharing opinions on the role of AI in creative writing, whether for small projects (such as writing the dreaded synopsis) or larger projects, such as writing an entire book.
So, what happened recently that made AI a hot topic for writers?
Oh…so much.
For starters, a seemingly sudden bubble of AI generated books made news headlines:
The AI generated book The FIre and Fury, published about the Maui fires just days after the devastation began, became a best seller,
Published and marketed workbooks devised by AI as ‘companions’ to published works, but NOT condoned or approved by the actual authors of the books. In fact, some of the workbooks or companion books were published…before the author’s original book was launched!
Fake books generated by AI and published using another author’s actual name have been published, such as these 5 books never authored or approved by Jane Friedman, a well-known and respected voice in the writing community,
A fully AI generated book won a second place award in China,
Rie Kudan won a prestigious award, later admitting to using AI to write about 5% of the book.
Waking the sleeping AI giant
Some writers are excited about the explosion of AI technology. Why? Writers have cited the benefits of using AI for generating story and plot ideas, writing the synopsis (which writers often find challenging), and generally ‘hurrying up’ the lengthy process of writing novels. With AI, writers have made claims that the timeline from writing to publication of a book can be whittled down to a few short months or even a matter of days. Yes, days!
But writer’s should be careful what they ask for. They might just get it. With the rapid ascent into widespread use, AI writing brings with it a host of concerns, including plagiarism, fraud, evenue loss for writers, reputation tarnishing, and the possible downfall of the creative writing industry.
Let’s dive in.
The good, the bad, and the ugly
The good
AI programs can (and have had) a viable place in the writing world. From algorithm-based editing suggestions (such as misspelled words or poor grammar identification), some lower levels of AI have been in use for some time. Think Grammarly. (Even as I am writing this, WordPress is offering the option for AI-driven content.) Mid-high, high schools, and colleges have been using AI on some level to assess plagiarism in submitted essays for well over a decade.
The bad
But if AI utility in writing were only about these process enhancements and plagiarism identification, we wouldn’t be having this debate amongst the Insecure Writer’s Support Group bloggers today. The problem, as demonstrated above, stems from the fact that AI is being used to generate books (either in part or in full). And to fully understand just why that is a concern, we must first talk about just how AI goes about writing those books.
How does AI write (books)?
AI writing is created through a series of specific writing prompts that cause the computer to respond using a compilation of writing it has been previously exposed to.
What does that mean?
It’s a fancy way of saying the computer has been loaded with the writing of many books. When the ‘writer’ poses very specific requests, the computer will reach into all the books it ‘knows,’ analyze what content answers the request, and then re-formulate it in writing. For example, you can ask AI to ‘write a mystery short story in the style of Agatha Christie.’ The computer will spit out a mystery story that will mimic the voice and writing style of Agatha Christie.
“Oh, cool!” you might say.
But where did all those books come from that were ‘taught’ to the computer? In one case, e-books were used to teach Books3, an AI writing computer within the Meta coporation. Those e-books were sources from online sites. No authors were asked permission to use their work. No authors were paid commission or offered compensation if parts of their work were spit back out by the computer algorithm as part of a ‘newly written’ book. When a list of books used to train the Book3 AI program was released as part of a lawsuit, authors were shocked to find their names among works stolen, including Nora Roberts (over 200 books) and Mary H.K.Choi.
The ugly
Copyright infringement: The programmers of these AI writing programs are not asking the original authors for permission for the computer to potentially reuse their work in part or in it’s entirety. That can result in copyright infringement, especially if the writing is substantially similar to the original work. So far, the AI programmers seem to have had a blatant disregard for this legality, developing an industry founded upon stealing writer’s ideas and promoting the computer-generated remix of the writer’s ideas as an original creation.
Copycats, knock-offs, and fraud: I’ve already mentioned a few of the less honest outcomes of AI generated stories. Unscrupulous ‘writers’ are able to use online blogs and previous books from authors to program AI generators to recreate the voice and style of an author, then publish works using names close enough to the original author that readers may be fooled. In a number of cases, the original author’s actual name was used!
Here are a few examples:
Jane Friedman- 5 AI generated books being sold on Amazon listed Jane Friedman as the author. She wrote none of them.
Reputation: We work hard as writers to develop our brand and style of writing and to cultivate a following of readers that love our stories and want more. We pride ourselves in the care we take developing stories, the character arcs, the plot lines, etc. But AI generated stories, at least at the current programming technology, are still in their infancy of learning creative prose. The writing style and voice have been mismatched, stories have been reported to be choppy, with circular content and poorly written. But these knock-offs represent themselves as the original writer to garner sales (that’s fraud). How would you feel if one of your steadfast readers told you they just bought your most recent release (which you, uhm, didn’t even release yet) and the reader was disappointed in the work. What if your readers start posting online reviews about your sub-par work?
Revenue: Who’s getting the income from the sales of these knock-off books using your name? Not you.
Whack-a-mole- It sounds like it should be easy to find these fake works, notify Amazon or Good Reads, etc., get them removed, and move on. Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy. Why?
Large organizations like Amazon can be very slow to respond to complaints. Worse, they may not be eager to help remove the fake books. In Jane Friedman’s case, she had to fight against Amazon’s refusal to take the books down, aruguing that her name was not trademarked. She had to fight a second time to get them removed from her Good Reads account, where they had shown up as “hers.”
Multiple books: While you are chasing the removal of the one book you know about, others may begin to pop-up. It’s nearly impossible to keep watch over all book sale sites to see where copycats have cropped up. The Fire and Fury was, eventually, successfully removed from Amazon (see here for Jane Friedman’s battle with Amazon). But, as I looked today, it’s back on Amazon again, under a new ‘author’s name’ and listed as a ‘remix of the previous books, by Pearl O, complete with a bio and author page.
Multiple vendor sites: The books may have lready been picked up by other sales platforms, such as Barnes and Noble. Soon, the fakes are snaking their way through numerous sales platforms, damaging your reputation and making money off it as well.
What’s next?
The world of writing, from agents accepting submissions to writing guilds and awards sponsors are scrambling to create rules and regulations related to the use of AI generated works of writing, including:
Considerations about how AI is generated,
Requirements for original authors to be asked for permission and compensated for the use of their work,
Literary agency and publisher rules regarding submission of AI generated manuscripts, and
Notification to the public (identifying that part of the work was generated by AI)
In addition, actions, such as the Writers Guild recent strike demanding limits on AI use in writing film and TV show scripts will drive discussions. The Federal Trade Commission recently made some initial statements regarding AI use of works on creative platforms. And the decisions resulting from ongoing lawsuits, such as those involving the work of Jodi Piccoult, John Grisham, and David Baldacci (just to name a few) will define the future of AI generated written work.
So, to AI or not to AI?
The original task for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog hoppers this month was to discuss how we feel about AI’s impact on creative writing and if we have used (or would) AI to generate writing, either in part (such as a synopsis) or in in whole.
While I’m fine with the role AI has played in support processes for writing (such as word or phrase suggestion), I do not condone nor support the use of AI in creative writing.
Why?
It’s lazy. For most of us, writing is a passion. It’s hard. Not everyone can (or should) do it. Few stick it out until the end, through the months of story development, character arcs, editing (and successive re-edits), and plunging into the pitching (or publishing) world. Writing the ‘hard stuff,’ like stuggling through a synopsis, makes writers better. Punching keys on a computer to have it spit the synopsis out, does not. If I reach a time when I’d rather have a computer write my books for me, I’ll know it’s time to leave writing and find something I enjoy enough to do myself.
If you need some ideas for stories, here are a few posts to check out:
Having trouble coming up with story ideas? Check out this post.
Want help deciding your story’s direction? Check out this post.
Need tips on writing that dreaded synopsis? Check out this post.
It’s supporting copyright infringement and theft of creative work. Using the AI program essentially supports the process of stealing authors books to use them for someone else’s gain. Watch out what you support. That stolen work and income may someday be yours.
It’s supports fraud. It’s supporting an industry and helping create a market for a product that is being blatantly abused, with little legal recourse for authors that are impacted.
It’s a cheat. It quite simply is taking other writers words and ideas and using them without their permission, even if they are not in the same format.
It supports the degradation of writing quality. These AI books flooding the market are poorly written, and can drive down both customer satisfaction and trust in the quality of work their money will buy, further damaging a struggling industry for authors.
I hope this has given you some fuel for thought about the growth and tragectory of AI in the writing world, as well as YOUR role in helping shape the creative writing environment of the future.
Drop into the comments below and let me know what you think!
Meet other writers-blog hop link:
Other IWSG authors willing to share ideas and offer support along this writing journey can be found at the blog hop links (below). And please visit my co-hosts for this month: Kristina Kelly, Jean Davis, and Liza @ Middle Passages!
The post To AI or Not to AI? That’s the Writing Question first appeared on Miffie Seideman.